Milk & Roses
by Utopian
Summary: o4/3o : He was tragic, but he was HER kind of tragic. Thirty drabbles. — sasusaku
1. i

title: milk & roses  
chapter: 1/30  
summary: they began in a whirl of ice-cream trucks, the accompanying ice-cream and broken teddy bears.  
dedication: tumblr, mah bby.  
30 days of prompts : beginning.

note: prompts from tumblr. move along.

* * *

If he really thought about it, they began with an ice-cream truck. Delving deeper into his memories, he would agree that they began with ice lollies.

She would, of course, slug him in the shoulder (Uchiha's don't wince) and declare that it all started when he had dropped her favourite teddy bear out of her family's seventeenth-story window. Had it not been for the wiles of Mikoto, the 'playdate' would have been an absolute disaster.

The young Uchiha downright refused to apologize to the wailing girl and promptly burst into tears himself when Mikoto threatened to take his stuffed dinosaur ("His name is Dino!" he had screeched) into 'custody'.

The chimes of the ice-cream man signaled Mikoto's frantic scurrying downstairs to buy frozen treats for her sobbing and shrieking charges. Rin would have her head (Kami knew that the woman spoiled her daughter far too much) if she returned in time to see Sakura's tear-streaked face.

Three minutes later, a panting Uchiha woman climbed the eight hundred and twenty-two steps back to the apartment complex, wary residents peppering her with an assortment of odd looks.

To her surprise, the young Uchiha and even younger Hatake were building a lego house and being rather civil to each other.

'Ah, children.'

The peace lasted until Sakura accidently trod on a piece of lego, howled in pain and proceeded to punch Sasuke in the nose.

Exactly fifteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds later, Mikoto cradled a bloodied Sasuke in her arms as Sakura profusely apologized in that lisping way of hers, waving a lolly in front of the pouting boy.

"I'm swooo sworry Saswuke-wun!"

"Ne, Sasuke-chan. Sakura-chan's said she's sorry." comforted the elder Uchiha.

The silent boy turned around in his mother's arms to face the girl. He sniffed and reached out to grab the peace offering.

She brightened like the sun.

* * *

Pressing a kiss to the sulky boy next to her, she whipped out her secret weapon.

Tomato-flavoured ice lollies.

(Heaven knows he might be the only person alive who ate them.)

* * *

note: so it's one prompt a day hmm? i may probably have a day or two delay depending on schoolwork and all that. review, favourite, burn in a ditch, all that good stuff. peace.


	2. ii

title: milk & roses  
chapter: 2/30  
summary: accused of larceny, breaking and entering and assault; what's a man to do but confess to his one true love?  
dedication: whoever.  
30 days of prompts : accusation.

note: erk, it's day two.

* * *

The cell was damp and black mold covered the eastern wall. Beside him, a loud blonde-haired imbecile wailed loudly and strummed his pathetic banjo.

"Shut up, idiot." hissed the one and only Uchiha Sasuke.

Yes, the almighty Uchiha was in a jail cell. With Uzumaki Naruto, official village delinquent.

Oh woe was him.

While Naruto didn't look much different in the obnoxious prison jumpsuit, Sasuke was ashamed to admit that he looked like a fuzzy black orange.

No, really. Fuzzy. Black. Orange.

The worst part, however, was not the humiliation of being mistaken for the blonde, but when all the prisoners were forced into the showers together.

Bars of soap fell. Eye twitch.

Burning a glare into the toothless grinning inmate, the Uchiha, with all the dignity he could muster, dragged his best friend back into their cell, **after** wrapping a towel around his slim hips.

* * *

"Ne, teme? I hope Sakura-chan bails us out soon."

"Hn. I wouldn't be surprised if she left us here to teach us a lesson." commented the Uchiha dryly.

The silence that befell them was uncomfortable. But no silence lasted long in Naruto's presence.

"You should tell her y'know. Sakura-chan's not as blind as you think she is."

The black-haired man spluttered.

"What are you talking about, idiot?"

"I mean, you should tell her about your feelings!" shouted the blonde. "Everyone already knows you've got the hots for her. You could barely take your eyes off her at the reunion!"

All Naruto got for his efforts at pulling that stick out of his best friend's ass was a hand clamped over his mouth.

"Quiet, baka. Do you want everyone to hea- YOU BIT ME YOU MORON!" screeched the Uchiha.

* * *

"Uchiha Sasuke, you have a visitor."

There she was, in all her annoying pinkness.

She was wearing a white camisole paired with a floral skirt, white stockings, sneakers and a pink apple cap. The bemused smile on her face made Sasuke want to rip her lips off (and kiss them, he would later admit grudgingly).

"Hi."

He raged in his mind. How dare she act all perky and like everything was fine? Like she wasn't leaving the both of them to rot in this shithole?

"Oh stop glowering at me Sasuke-kun. We both know whose fault it is that you're in this predicament."

"_**TELL HER ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS IDIOT!" screamed chibi Naruto.**_

"Ano, Sasuke-kun. Why are you hitting your head against the table?"

Sasuke had indeed been abusing his forehead and when he glanced up, suddenly realized how _green_ Sakura's eyes were.

"Sakura…"

"Yes?"

"Go out for dinner with me."

"Um… that'd be pretty hard considering where you are right now, ne?"

Running a hand through his hair in a show of rare agitation, the Uchiha found his cheeks being pinched by a cooing Sakura.

"I'd love to, Sasuke-kun."

"So does that mean you're bailing us out of here?" he said hopefully.

"Tempting proposition, but no. I think you and Naruto deserve a little more time in here."

Sasuke growled.

"What the hell for?"

Cocking her head to the side, Sakura counted off her fingers.

"Breaking and entering, larceny, assault…"

"It was Kakashi's house, **my **rare kunai and who knew the pervert would attack us?!"

"And there's just one more thing."

"What?"

"Uchiha Sasuke, you're under arrest for stealing my heart."

* * *

"That was stupid, Sakura."

_**BONK!**_

"I love you too, baka."

* * *

note: i cannot handle my own lameness. someone send help.


	3. iii

title: milk & roses  
chapter: 3/30  
summary: acceptance never came easy with Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. in which he learns to understand and she learns to trust again.  
dedication: all my reviewers, sorry for taking the longest butt time ever.

note: i am seriously so effing sorry guys, love you all.

* * *

Sasuke has never once believed that she understood his pain. He believes with clenched fists and gritted teeth that she will never understand the hollow pain in his chest that threatens to suffocate him. Because her cherry hair, sparkling emerald eyes and careless smiles means that she is fulfilled, she has always had everything he did not. He doesn't realize how wrong he is until Sakura's eighteenth birthday comes around and notices that not one of Sakura's family has come to her surprise party.

* * *

When he watches her train, he is surprised to see her become supremely proficient at dual-wielding. She hacks and slices with the grace of geisha at Sai's crumbling defense. Her speed now rivals that of his own while attacking with a sword. Her sharp mind picks up the details of the fight in the way Sasuke's Sharingan has always given him. Even Kakashi is impressed by the show before him and offers to train her after their usual practice.

To their immense shock, Sakura turns him down with a frosty smile and disappears for the rest of the day.

* * *

Her obnoxious hair has toned down with age, turning more rosy instead of cherry. Her eyes remained as green as they ever were, but they too have dulled with the experience of a kunoichi. But her smile; that soft, gentle smile he has always known is gone.

She works non-stop, barely making time for the team and leaving for solo missions without a word to anyone. He finds himself at the gates every evening, waiting for her elusive silhouette to appear in the distance. More often than not she comes back bloodied and on the edge of collapse from her exhaustion. He knows she is too damn proud for her own good, so he leaves her to hobble back to the Hokage Tower alone.

* * *

"The idiot is worried about you." he says to her one day, when he is there for a preliminary checkup before his mission.

She glances at him before returning her attention to checking his chakra pathways. It is a long moment before she replies.

"You sure that it's Naruto who's worried?" she says, grinning wryly at him.

"Hn"

She sighs as if dealing with an insolent child. "Look Sasuke. I appreciate the concern but I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself. Tell 'Naruto' that for me, will you?" she says, emphasizing the blond's name with air quotes.

He grunts again and stands up, adopting that infamous ninja perch on her windowsill before hopping out to join the rest of his team.

* * *

Despite her words, he does not feel reassured in the least. The dark circles around her eyes and her slightly paler complexion is more than enough to alert him that she isn't taking care of herself. She leaves for mission after mission with nary a day's rest in between, and the blood that soaks her clothes when she returns tells him that the missions are at least A-class.

One day, he sees her in the training grounds, slashing furiously at the hay-filled dummies with her favourite twin katanas. He pretends not to notice the thin trail of tears leading from her eyes to her chin and focuses on her now waist-length hair pinned neatly back with her hitai-ate.

Then suddenly she sheathes her weapons and turns to directly face him, eyes blazing.

"Fight me."

Locking his eyes with hers, he knows she is completely serious. A flash of lightening and the boom of thunder alerts the pair to the incoming storm, but neither of them care.

_For one shatters the very Earth with her fists and forces mountains to their knees.  
And the other commands the Fury of the Skies themselves, nature's own Mercury dashing to his aid. _

He nods, and they lose themselves in a flurry of pink and black, the harsh screech of metal against metal petrifying any nearby souls. He understands that she needs this, this release of pain that she's held within her for too long.

The pain of never being the favourite student.  
The pain of watching him walk away.  
The pain of losing her parents.  
The burden of keeping up her facade.

Sasuke understands that she is not like him. Sakura does not desire revenge or retribution. All she has ever wanted was release from her silent prison of pain. Finally Sasuke believes that she is **just like him** in many ways, yet so much better. When he pins her up against a tree in the middle of the training field, she struggles and she **screams **at him to let her go but he assures her that he cannot. Not this time and not ever again.

* * *

They begin to see more of her, and Sasuke couldn't be happier. She regains the colour in her cheeks and the dark eyes slowly start to recede; although she never quite retrieves her smile which is to be expected after the lifetime of bloodshed and horrors she has seen. Team Seven finally sees true restoration with their female member returned to them and soon, they begin to hunt down the remaining Akatsuki members.

He learns that it was Deidara's resurrection that had killed her parents during the Third Great Ninja War. He learns that she has always blamed herself for their deaths, for not being there to protect them. There is a strange acceptance in her eyes, acceptance that replaces deep-seated grief, sorrow and anger.

_(During their last mission to Rain, he also learns that she employs fire jutsu in her arsenal and he swears his heartrate rises) _

* * *

Life goes on.  
Sasuke trains, Sakura heals, Naruto eats ramen, Sai paints and Kakashi reads his pervert book.

Until one day Sakura arrives home to find a bouquet of white roses on her coffee table and a oh-so-very conspicuous-looking Uchiha Sasuke on her couch.

* * *

note: will try to update soon. sorry this one was pretty short.


	4. iv

title: milk& roses  
chapter: 4/30  
summary: he was tragic, but he was **her** kind of tragic  
dedication: my ipod, sorry for dropping you bby.

note: i am seriously so effing sorry guys, love you all.

* * *

She was a fool.

A lovesick, blinded, ignorant fool.  
She was the fool that loved him.  
She loved the boy with the world-weary eyes, coal hair and bitter smile.  
She loved every inch of him. Not for his name, or his wealth.  
Because he was her Sasuke-kun.

She was all that stood between him and his defection. The final snip of the bond that had once held his family to Konoha.  
She watches his back get smaller and smaller. She has always watched his back.  
He doesn't know that along with her heart, he takes the beauty of the world away from her.  
Because her heart has never been hers to keep, only his.  
Sakura can never see colour again after that night.

_Missing him was dark gray all alone._

* * *

She works, for days, weeks, months, **years** to break the bond that connects him to her.  
When Ino calls her over to the flower shop one day, Sakura is surprised to see the blossoms a dull gray.  
For the girl with the bright pink hair and seawater eyes is lost. She has lost her colour, lost her Sasuke-kun.

When Naruto visits her for the first time in months, she snaps.  
A vase is thrown against the wall and the window is shattered by her fists.  
Everything is _gray, _**gray, **_**gray **_and she hates it. She hates what he has made her become.  
But she knows she cannot hate him, only resent him.  
Because Haruno Sakura was _made _to forgive Uchiha Sasuke.

* * *

The first and final time they meet in over a decade is when she's returning from a mission to Earth.  
They are twenty-two and so tired of the murder that taints their breaths.  
She won't back down this time. How could she face Naruto again if she didn't try to bring back their beloved Sasuke-kun?  
But she knows he is dead. She has known from the moment she felt the heat of the Chidori inches away from her head, the moment the cold metal of poisoned kunai was pressed against her throat.  
She knows he is beyond saving, but she must try.

* * *

The moon and stars are out now, but Sakura has never been able to see their beauty in ten years.

Now, she realises, the moon is a chrysanthemum yellow and the stars winking in the distance are the purest white she's ever seen.  
She sees the dark green of the surrounding trees, she sees the soft blue of the flowers of the field they are in.  
She sees the deep scarlet of her blood staining the grass underneath her.  
He's laying next to her, hand clutching her own.  
She moves to lay on his chest, wincing as the movement tears the hole in her chest a little wider.

"I'm sorry I couldn't bring you home." she apologizes, the absence of tears on her face alien to him. Her tone is that of regretful resignation.

He pulls her closer to him, kissing her forehead as gently as he can muster.

"You are my home." he says, even as her poison makes him shudder.

They sigh together and send out a silent prayer to Naruto, that he might find joy someday. They hope their friends, their _nakama _will not mourn for them too much. They will the villagers not to pity them, because they are finally happy.

They are finally at peace.

* * *

note: dshjskkjhsasdasd. i don't even know okay guys. ;_; i'm in an angsty mood.


End file.
